Health Inequalities
What Are Health Inequalities?
Health inequalities are unfair differences in health between different groups in society. These differences can affect how long people live, the health issues they face, and the care they receive.
Wider Determinants of Health
Our health is influenced by the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age. These are called “wider determinants of health” and include things like housing, employment, and access to healthy food. These factors are often connected. For example, someone who is unemployed may live in poorer housing, have less access to green spaces, and struggle to find healthy food. As a result, some groups are more likely to have worse health and face difficulties accessing healthcare.
Why Do These Inequalities Exist?
The reasons are complex and may include:
- the availability of services in their local area
- service opening times
- access to transport
- access to childcare
- language (spoken and written)
- literacy
- poor experiences in the past
- misinformation
- fear
People in deprived areas, Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities, and vulnerable groups like the homeless are at higher risk of these inequalities.
COVID-19 highlighted many existing health and social inequalities. In response, NHS England issued eight actions to address these issues, later refining them to five key priorities. These priorities form the foundation of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme.
The Core20Plus5 approach has also been developed to help reduce healthcare inequalities. The Kings Fund have some helpful information which explains health inequalities in more detail.
Wolverhampton
The city has been growing, and now more than 260,000 people live here. About 45% of the people come from different ethnic backgrounds, and one in five people have a disability. The number of people is expected to keep growing, reaching 296,102 by the year 2043, which is about 13% more than in 2018.
The city has more young people than most places in England, but the number of older people (aged 65 and over) is growing faster than the number of younger people. In the past few years, levels of deprivation have increased with more people have been struggling with things like money, jobs, health, education, crime, where they live, and getting the services they need.
Life expectancy means how long people are expected to live. It’s important to know this and how long they live in good health to understand how healthy our city is. In our city, there’s a big difference in how long people live, partly because some areas are poorer than others. In Wolverhampton, men and women don’t live as long in good health compared to the national average. This means people here might spend fewer years feeling well compared to the rest of the country. This affects how happy they are and how much help they need from doctors and nurses. We want to make this better for everyone in the city, no matter where they live or which group they belong to, and also close the gap between Wolverhampton and the rest of England.
For more details, you can read the Wolverhampton Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy.